Coffee with Marijuana: the Breakfast of Champions

Many of us get up and need a cup of coffee to make peace with the world. Each and every day of the week. Maybe Saturday we can make an exception if the previous night dragged on longer than usual... But there are few, however, who are able to rise on a Monday without this brew, which helps us to sweep away our sleeping sand, open our eyes and face the day with some vigour.

Conscious of how much we need coffee, many are the adventurous seeking to innovate in this area: capsules, a multitude of new flavours, ground-breaking machines... And now, in the United States, there's also coffee with marijuana.

It was something one could have seen coming. With the legalization of cannabis, many have pounced on this emerging market in search of a small market niche. In Colorado many have plunged into a hitherto-underexploited market, cuisine, while many others have tried their hands in a wide range of sectors. Now the intrepid Adam Stites has resolved to add a new dimension to one's morning coffee, combining this drink that resurrects us every morning with a little bit of grass.

Stites has created "Legal," a drink manufactured and distributed by his own company, Mirth Provisions, that will soon be released in Washington State. Although the product is coffee-based, it contains 20 milligrams of THC, marijuana's psychoactive ingredient - enough to produce the same effects on the body as a glass of wine or a bottle of beer, according to its creator. The impact is also comparable to the stimulus provided by a can of energy drink - without the negative effects that taurine has on the body. 

Stites is not the first to experiment with a mixture of coffee and marijuana. A number of different recipes can be found on the Internet, from the most simple, like a smoothie with milk and marijuana, to a delicious ice cream of coffee and marijuana, ideal or this sweltering season. But he has been the only one bold enough to put his product on the market, with the aim of reaching many more people than those who usually consume cannabis in a state like Washington, where it has been legal since 2012. Perhaps that is why he's conducting a campaign like that for any other beverage. As if it were a beer, "Legal" will be released in bottles of 6 33-cl bottles, priced at around 9 to 11 dollars (between 6.6 and 8 euros).

Their catalogue features not only two different mixtures of coffee and marijuana, but also lemon, pomegranate and cherry-flavoured soft drinks in which cannabis plays a leading role. Their promotional messageis quite striking: the company claims that its coffee is like “riding a cool avalanche of pure deliciousness down a tall mountain and landing in an ocean of good feelings. You’ll swim off into a day of work or play filled to the brim with pure joy."

There remain doubts

Even though over two years have passed since the recreational use of marijuana was legalized in Washington, there are still many hurdles a business must clear if it wishes to market a product containing this ingredient. The law aside, authorities still eye warily everything that contains the most minimal dose, and watch like hawks entrepreneurs who, like Adam Stites, seek to innovate by incorporating cannabis into their products.

Such is the uncertainty that exists in this regard that the creator of "Legal" still doesn't know how many bottles and packs he will be able to sell. Apart from the acceptance that "Legal" enjoys, the company must obtain the permits to open stores in which to sell its product. He says that they could manage to produce hundreds of thousands of bottles in one hour, but if they want to get all their merchandise out they need a market with fewer impediments.

And if that were not enough, the American press has thrown even more oil on the fire. After The New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd ate a candy bar in Denver containing marijuana and it didn't agree with her, she questioned whether the ease with which one could consume marijuana in the State of Colorado was positive or negative. Adam Stites came out in defense of his product, that mixes cafe and marijuana, his business, and the advances made to date.

The creator of the delicious beverage wrote that, although the new policies in the United States should be accompanied by adequate education successful by the authorities, everything will be better under the banner of legalization, not only because it can help to fill the country's coffers, but because, as it is no longer a taboo subject, everyone may speak openly of the benefits and disadvantages posed by marijuana.

Until all the barriers are removed only a few fortunate souls will be able to enjoy "Legal" on the other side of the Atlantic. Here we'll still have to wait.